Oliver Heckmann – Cor Baayen Award 2006

In a particularly tight competition, ERCIM honoured Oliver Heckmann for the outstanding originality, high impact and quality of his work in the field of network science. Put simply, his research aims to give Internet users better quality of service for equal or lower costs. His work addresses inefficiencies, optimises networks, and explores technological advances that improve quality of service and/or reduce costs — while also shedding light on the trade-offs between these goals.

The practical applicability of his results brought him into close contact with real providers, supported successful funding efforts, and contributed to the publication of his book The Competitive ISP, which includes results from his PhD thesis A System-oriented Approach to Efficiency and Quality of Service for Internet Service Providers.

Academic and professional background

Oliver Heckmann studied applied economics and electrical engineering at TU Darmstadt, receiving an award for excellence. He completed his PhD in computer science at TU Darmstadt under the supervision of Prof. Ralf Steinmetz, with Prof. Jon Crowcroft (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) as second supervisor.

His PhD thesis received the prestigious Best Dissertation Award of the German Computer Science Association (for 2004). After the PhD, he worked as an assistant professor and research group head at the Multimedia Communications Lab (KOM), leading a team of seven PhD students. He later joined Google Labs in Zürich, Switzerland, continuing his work on improving and innovating the Internet and Internet services.